Germany for 2 weeks and Holland for 2 weeks

My partner and I are back packers and we are world nomadic travelers. We will be visiting first Holland for the last 2 weeks in May and then onto Germany for the first 2 weeks in June. We like to connect with people and feel more a part of the places we go then just the tourist scene. This is a short time to do that but we will have a friend in Holland to show us around and son and daughter in law in Germany. We are open to suggests of must see places and off the beaten path places. Anyone out there with ideas. After Germany we will be going onto Africa for 4 months.Joanie

- I hear good things about Baden-Wurtemburg (south-west) Germany. Beautiful towns in the black forest like Freiburg, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden etc.- Munich (Englisch Gardens, Dachau, beer gardens/breweries...very close to the alps (Garmisch-Partenkirche) --> Salzburg & Tyrol/Innsbruck in Austria are close, and gorgeous!- As for northern cities, Bremen & Hamburg are close to the summer vacation island of "Sylt" -- the town of "Westerland" is on the island...great beaches!- Koln (Cologne) for shopping, carnival, and the tower.

i really liked lubeck when i went there in the summer a few years ago... they specialise in making the best marzipan in germany (apparently, i hate the stuff :P) and they have a really nice harbour area, with markets and stalls, nice waterside cafes etc. its just a nice holiday place with a nice hoiday feel to it. they sometimes have sandcaslte building comps, which end up as much more than sandcastles!!very impressive sand sculptures there!

ive heard nice thingsd about the bremen, osnabruck, and other places around that area too, tho i was only in osnabruck for about 10mins

I just came this morning from bremen, and i tell you its a nice place, we stayed mainly in the center, which is already something cool to see, the bremer rathaus, bremer protector and the town musicians if ur into that stuff. There is also the schnoor quarter, which is a little piece of the town which is very old, the houses look like they came out from a fairytale.. hehe

Apart from that there is a cool museum not far off from burger park(which is a very nice park since we dont get many in malta hehe) called the Bremen universum. Its basically a scince center, very very cool. Get ready to spend half a day there only!! hehe.

If ur not into museums or arcitecthure, bremen is cool for shopping also, filled with shops everywhere! from german spreadable jams to airguns lol.

The people are friendly, if u speak a little german is better because when we asked them if they spoke english or not they all said the same "a little bit" lol but although they dont speeak much english they all try to help you!

I only stayed there for 2 days and i liked the place. if you go let us know what u think